There's been yet another white-cis-feminist-vs-antiracists/trans activists etc imbroglio recently, this time on tumblr and twitter. I don't have anything to say on the conflict itself that hasn't been said better by other people, but I found it interesting as an encapsulation of various broader dynamics I've been thinking about.
A short unsympathetic summary
A longer more sympathetic summary has some inaccessible images
A masterpost of criticisms of Laci Green
First: What is it with these trolls? Who are they? They seem to turn up to any large fight and just make everything murkier and nastier. The sort that send nasty mysogyny etc I at least kind of understand, but the sort that send nasty "feminism" baffle me. Anonymous trolls always slip up sometimes, has anyone seen it happen with these types? Because sending anonymous death threats is always unacceptable and doesn't help anyone. Are these trolls actually just trolls trying to be hurtful, or do they genuinely think they're fighting for social justice? EDIT: Someone admitting to doing purely to make people hate socila justice bloggers.
Second: Urg am I sick of people using the term "social justice" or "social justice blogger" as an insult. It's exactly equivalent to people using "feminist" to mean "nasty manhater". The behaviour they're criticising exists, and needs to be critiqued, and I understand not wanting to call yourself that term or being suspicious of those who do, but there's a difference between calling for people in a group to take responsibility for their worst members and implying that the worst members are all there is. You end up with a dynamic like at FailFandom_anon where people preface ANY antiracist/feminist etc statement with "I'm worried I'm being a social justice warrior but...". And at least they distinguish between "social justice" and "social justice warrior" (I know the people in these posts are putting lots of quotes around "social justice" but that can be read as just mocking their hypocrisy)
Here's a post about the dynamic: This whole Laci Green situation has given me some clarity on something I’ve been considering for a while now: the stigma attached to the social justice movement. which starts off well then says
As if this whole situation didn't start with people saying that sort of thing and her reacting defensively. And this always happens: even well meaning people look at an imbroglio and assume that the most vocal and strident voices are the ones who started it, and think that if only someone had been polite at the start none of this would have happened. When usually people ARE polite at the start and things only get heated later.
To quote the middle post above:
YES, YES THEY ARE. Death threats are bad! (Though I'm pretty sure most people saying "die cis scum" would never post death threats to individual people) But people do not actually get murdered for being cis. People are regularly murdered for being gay, or trans. The Westboro Baptists are calling for an extension/return of homophobic policies that have existed for centuries. There is no way trans activists will ever get the government or general society to discriminate against cis people. THIS CHANGES THE DYNAMIC SLIGHTLY.
Now, a related post: Muslim Woman Agency
On the whole a very good post, and I feel a bit uncomfortable criticising it. But I just want to highlight that it refers to Laci Green as "supposedly half-Iranian". Maybe I missed it but I have not seen any evidence that she is not of Iranian descent. And this to me feel likes the opposite side of the same coin that led her to thinking that being a white non-Muslim with Iranian muslim family makes her immune from Islamophobia: the idea that you either totally 100% privileged white/non-Muslim/etc, or totally 100% oppressed POC/Muslim etc qualified to speak for everyone else in "your" group. Mixed race/ethnicity people are in a complicated liminal space that tends to be glossed over in most discussions of racism and ethnic prejudice. I'm not saying "WON'T SOMEONE THINK OF THE OPPRESSED WHITE MIXED RACE PEOPLE", obviously being mostly buffered from racism etc is an advantage, but pretending that race and ethnicity are simple black and white issues is both untrue and harmful, especially to mixed race POC. (idk, I hope I'm not out of line with this, since I AM totally 100% white. It's just something I've seen with mixed race friends and family. Plus, you know, Obama...)
Going back to the "criticisms of the way social justice is handled online" thing, an unrelated post I came across recently: TW: Rape, molestation (RE: recent post about united and the TSA) I just want to make this post here. A Deaf blogger complains about discrimination and is annoyed to find able bodied people going on and on about how TERRIBLE it is in a public spectacle of "look how socially aware I am" and pity for the disabled.
Though able bodied people from the US saying they'll move to Canada to escape ableism (I can hear![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
trouble laughing from here) still aren't as amusing as the Republicans saying they'll move there to avoid socialised medicine :D
A short unsympathetic summary
A longer more sympathetic summary has some inaccessible images
A masterpost of criticisms of Laci Green
First: What is it with these trolls? Who are they? They seem to turn up to any large fight and just make everything murkier and nastier. The sort that send nasty mysogyny etc I at least kind of understand, but the sort that send nasty "feminism" baffle me. Anonymous trolls always slip up sometimes, has anyone seen it happen with these types? Because sending anonymous death threats is always unacceptable and doesn't help anyone. Are these trolls actually just trolls trying to be hurtful, or do they genuinely think they're fighting for social justice? EDIT: Someone admitting to doing purely to make people hate socila justice bloggers.
Second: Urg am I sick of people using the term "social justice" or "social justice blogger" as an insult. It's exactly equivalent to people using "feminist" to mean "nasty manhater". The behaviour they're criticising exists, and needs to be critiqued, and I understand not wanting to call yourself that term or being suspicious of those who do, but there's a difference between calling for people in a group to take responsibility for their worst members and implying that the worst members are all there is. You end up with a dynamic like at FailFandom_anon where people preface ANY antiracist/feminist etc statement with "I'm worried I'm being a social justice warrior but...". And at least they distinguish between "social justice" and "social justice warrior" (I know the people in these posts are putting lots of quotes around "social justice" but that can be read as just mocking their hypocrisy)
Here's a post about the dynamic: This whole Laci Green situation has given me some clarity on something I’ve been considering for a while now: the stigma attached to the social justice movement. which starts off well then says
You know how I and the tons of ‘true social justicers’ would have handled the Laci Green situation? We would have just said, “Hey Laci, that thing you said was pretty transphobic, and here’s why. You have a really big following, so we’d appreciate it if you could refrain from saying those sorts of things in the future. Thanks!” And I’m pretty sure she would have listened.
As if this whole situation didn't start with people saying that sort of thing and her reacting defensively. And this always happens: even well meaning people look at an imbroglio and assume that the most vocal and strident voices are the ones who started it, and think that if only someone had been polite at the start none of this would have happened. When usually people ARE polite at the start and things only get heated later.
To quote the middle post above:
When the same Tumblr bloggers who get angry over Laci Green’s comments also scream “Die, Cis Scum” rather than explaining what cis-privilege is, are they really any better than the Westboro Baptist Church with their “God Hates Fags” mottos?
YES, YES THEY ARE. Death threats are bad! (Though I'm pretty sure most people saying "die cis scum" would never post death threats to individual people) But people do not actually get murdered for being cis. People are regularly murdered for being gay, or trans. The Westboro Baptists are calling for an extension/return of homophobic policies that have existed for centuries. There is no way trans activists will ever get the government or general society to discriminate against cis people. THIS CHANGES THE DYNAMIC SLIGHTLY.
Now, a related post: Muslim Woman Agency
On the whole a very good post, and I feel a bit uncomfortable criticising it. But I just want to highlight that it refers to Laci Green as "supposedly half-Iranian". Maybe I missed it but I have not seen any evidence that she is not of Iranian descent. And this to me feel likes the opposite side of the same coin that led her to thinking that being a white non-Muslim with Iranian muslim family makes her immune from Islamophobia: the idea that you either totally 100% privileged white/non-Muslim/etc, or totally 100% oppressed POC/Muslim etc qualified to speak for everyone else in "your" group. Mixed race/ethnicity people are in a complicated liminal space that tends to be glossed over in most discussions of racism and ethnic prejudice. I'm not saying "WON'T SOMEONE THINK OF THE OPPRESSED WHITE MIXED RACE PEOPLE", obviously being mostly buffered from racism etc is an advantage, but pretending that race and ethnicity are simple black and white issues is both untrue and harmful, especially to mixed race POC. (idk, I hope I'm not out of line with this, since I AM totally 100% white. It's just something I've seen with mixed race friends and family. Plus, you know, Obama...)
Going back to the "criticisms of the way social justice is handled online" thing, an unrelated post I came across recently: TW: Rape, molestation (RE: recent post about united and the TSA) I just want to make this post here. A Deaf blogger complains about discrimination and is annoyed to find able bodied people going on and on about how TERRIBLE it is in a public spectacle of "look how socially aware I am" and pity for the disabled.
Though able bodied people from the US saying they'll move to Canada to escape ableism (I can hear
trouble laughing from here) still aren't as amusing as the Republicans saying they'll move there to avoid socialised medicine :D